No Jobs in US, Unemployment Rate 10.2

Comparisons to the Great Depression of the 1920s were justified with an October report citing almost 16 million people in the US unable to find jobs. With many people thinking that the recession has almost ended, this recent rate of unemployment puts serious doubts to their claim. In October 2009, 15.7 million people in the US were jobless, sending the unemployment percentage to 10.2, the highest since 1983. This is not counting people who have part-time jobs or those who have simply given up looking for jobs in these bad times. Taking these into account, the unemployment rate soars to a staggering 17.5%.

With employers still not hiring, experts claim that the unemployment rate might go as high as 10.5 in the coming months. President Barack Obama, however, is signing a legislation to provide additional unemployment benefits for laid off workers, the fourth since the recession began in 2007. With an extra 14-20 weeks of aid provided by this latest bill, almost 2 million people will be saved from running out of unemployment insurance during Thanksgiving and Christmas this year. Obama was also quoted as saying "I will not rest until all Americans who want work can find work."

This, however, might prove difficult with October 2009 being the 22nd successive month that people have lost jobs in the US. With almost 2 years of consecutive job losses, the recession has had the worst impact on employees in the last 70 years, with almost 7.3 million jobs lost. Experts are of the opinion that this high rate of unemployment will carry through November 2010, when the elections are to be held. This might end up as not good for Obama, as the last time when unemployment topped 10% in the US (in 1982), the then president, R. Reagan, lost about 26 seats in the elections.

Though there were claims that the US economy had grown 3.5%, this was not enough for employers confidence and there was no spurt of hiring. Also, the average work week in the US remains at a low 33 hours per week, which is bad, as employers will first look up to the working hours rather than hire new employees.

On the brighter side, there have been a few sectors where jobs have been added, notable sectors being the education and health care sector, responsible for adding about 45,000 jobs, and the business and professional sector, adding about 18,000 jobs.

Though things are moving the right way, they are moving very slowly indeed, and it might be a while before the job scene in the US improves.